CAIR's big lie on America's Muslim population

Investors Business Daily gives us yet another invaluable editorial today, deconstructing the lie that America's Muslim population has soared to 8 million. As IBD points out, the Census does not ask about religion, so Muslim population figures are necessarily guesswork. Given the agenda to Islamize America and see us governed by Shari'a, enhanced clout based on enhanced numbers is an obvious goal of CAIR and other Muslim special interest groups.

CAIR has sponsored a "study" which IBD exposes as a fraud.

To come up with its own figure, it [CAIR] hired a "respected scholar" by the name of Ihsan Bagby to lead its "study." But Bagby not only lacks independence - he's a CAIR board member - he's not even a trained demographer.

Worse, he admits the number he arrived at is a "guesstimation." Here's how he came up with it:

1. With help from CAIR researchers, Bagby called the nation's 1,209 mosques and interviewed 416 of them, asking them how many people were involved in their mosque in any way. The average response was 1,625, which is probably high, given that two imams claimed 50,000 when the nation's largest mosque - Dar al-Hijrah in the D.C. suburbs - has only about 3,000.

2. Bagby then multiplied that fuzzy participation figure by the 1,209 mosques and came up with 2 million "mosqued Muslims."

3. Next, he multiplied that sum by a magical factor of three to capture Muslims who might not participate in mosque activities, and arrived at the original 6 million guesstimate for the size of the Muslim population in America.

He says his factor of three was an educated guess. More like a wild exaggeration. Or perhaps a political calculation, as it produced a number that conveniently matched the size - and potential political clout - of the Jewish population in the country, also estimated at 6 million.

CAIR then took the liberty of bumping up the Muslim count to 7 million. Now - presto - it's at 8 million, and climbing.

IBD calls it a "big lie" and that's a good choice of words.

Hat tip: Joseph Crowley

Investors Business Daily gives us yet another invaluable editorial today, deconstructing the lie that America's Muslim population has soared to 8 million. As IBD points out, the Census does not ask about religion, so Muslim population figures are necessarily guesswork. Given the agenda to Islamize America and see us governed by Shari'a, enhanced clout based on enhanced numbers is an obvious goal of CAIR and other Muslim special interest groups.

CAIR has sponsored a "study" which IBD exposes as a fraud.

To come up with its own figure, it [CAIR] hired a "respected scholar" by the name of Ihsan Bagby to lead its "study." But Bagby not only lacks independence - he's a CAIR board member - he's not even a trained demographer.

Worse, he admits the number he arrived at is a "guesstimation." Here's how he came up with it:

1. With help from CAIR researchers, Bagby called the nation's 1,209 mosques and interviewed 416 of them, asking them how many people were involved in their mosque in any way. The average response was 1,625, which is probably high, given that two imams claimed 50,000 when the nation's largest mosque - Dar al-Hijrah in the D.C. suburbs - has only about 3,000.

2. Bagby then multiplied that fuzzy participation figure by the 1,209 mosques and came up with 2 million "mosqued Muslims."

3. Next, he multiplied that sum by a magical factor of three to capture Muslims who might not participate in mosque activities, and arrived at the original 6 million guesstimate for the size of the Muslim population in America.

He says his factor of three was an educated guess. More like a wild exaggeration. Or perhaps a political calculation, as it produced a number that conveniently matched the size - and potential political clout - of the Jewish population in the country, also estimated at 6 million.

CAIR then took the liberty of bumping up the Muslim count to 7 million. Now - presto - it's at 8 million, and climbing.